Advertising forms an important part of broadcast programming including broadcast video (television), radio and printed media. The revenues generated from advertisers subsidize and in some cases pay entirely for programming received by subscribers. For example, over the air broadcast programming (non-cable television) is provided entirely free to subscribers and is essentially paid for by the advertisements placed in the shows that are watched. Even in cable television systems and satellite-based systems, the revenues from advertisements subsidize the cost of the programming, and were it not for advertisements, the monthly subscription rates for cable television would be many times higher than at present. Radio similarly offers free programming based on payments for advertising. The low cost of newspapers and magazines is based on the subsidization of the cost of reporting, printing and distribution from the advertising revenues.
Techniques for inserting pre-recorded spot messages into broadcast transmission have been known. Generally, broadcast video sources (i.e., TV networks, special interest channels, etc.) schedule their air time with two types of information: “programming” for the purpose of informing or entertaining, and “avails” for the purpose of advertising. The avails may occupy roughly 20-25% of the total transmitting time, and are usually divided into smaller intervals of 15, 30, or 60 seconds.
In many prior art systems, the insertion of advertisements in avails is handled by a combination of cue-tone detectors, switching equipment and tape players that hold the advertising material. Upon receipt of the cue tones, an insertion controller automatically turns on a tape player containing the advertisement. Switching equipment then switches the system output from the video and audio signals received from the programming source to the output of the tape player. The tape player remains on for the duration of the advertising, after which the insertion controller causes the switching equipment to switch back to the video and audio channels of the programming source. When switched, these successive program and advertising segments usually feed to a radio-frequency (RF) modulator for delivery to the subscribers.
Many subscriber television systems, such as cable television are currently being converted to digital systems. These new digital systems compress the advertising data according to decompression standards, such as a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) compression standard (currently MPEG-2 standard). The compressed data is then stored as a digital file on a large disk drive (or several drives). Upon receipt of the cue tone, the digital file is spooled (“played”) off of the drive.
The advertisement may be inserted into the digital MPEG stream using digital video splicing techniques that include the healing of the broken MPEG stream. Alternatively, the digital advertisement may be converted to analog and spliced with an analog signal. Yet another technique for ad insertion involves decompressing the digital MPEG stream and splicing the ad in with the program in an uncompressed format.
A prior art (present model) of providing advertisements along with actual programming is based on linked sponsorship. In the linked sponsorship model, the advertisements are inserted into the actual programming based on the contents of the programming, e.g., a baby stroller advertisement may be inserted into a parenting program.
Even with linked sponsorship, advertising, and in particular broadcast television advertising, is mostly ineffective. That is, a large percentage, if not the majority of advertisements, do not have a high probability of effecting a sale. In addition to this fact, many advertisements are not even seen/heard by the subscriber who may mute the sound, change channels, or simply leave the room during a commercial break.
The reasons for such ineffectiveness are due to the fact that the displayed advertisements are not targeted to the subscribers' needs, likes or preferences. Generally, the same advertisements are displayed to all the subscribers irrespective of the needs and preferences of the subscribers.
In the Internet world, efforts have been made to collect information about subscriber likes and preferences by different means, e.g., by the use of cookies. In cookies and other profiling means, the user viewing habits, purchase habits, or surfing habits are monitored, recorded and analyzed, and then, based on the analysis, suitable advertisements are selected. Even though cookies and other profiling means assist in targeting advertising, they have recently come under fire as these means are known to invade the privacy of the subscribers without their authorization.
Thus, a system and a method is desired for providing subscribers/consumers with advertisements which are more targeted/directed to their lifestyles, while ensuring that their demographic, purchase, and product preference data is maintained private.